GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The state Court of Appeals has ruled in MLive's favor in a lawsuit brought against the city of Grand Rapids for refusing to release recorded phone calls tied to a vehicle crash involving a former Kent County prosecutor last year.

The appellate opinion released Tuesday, Sept. 12, states Kent County Circuit Court erred in denying MLive's motion for summary disposition and instructs the court to order the city "to cease withholding or to produce" the recordings requested in an MLive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Janiskee, who has filed his own legal action against the city alleging illegal wiretapping, has been fired. Ickes and Thomas Warwick, then a sergeant, were suspended but are still officers with the city department.

MLive filed a Freedom of Information Act requesting copies of the five recordings on the line designated as non-recorded. The city balked because it is waiting to see if a federal judge, in a separate case filed by the city, will issue a declaratory ruling that release of the calls does not violate state or federal wiretapping laws.

In appellate court filings, Magyar said, the city stated it had already concluded the recordings on the line designated as non-recorded do not constitute illegal interceptions of wiretapped phone communications because such interception must be intentional to violate federal law. The city has stated it "inadvertently" and "accidentally" recorded the subject recordings, which does not fall within the federal wiretapping statute.

"That's important for what our case is all about," Magyar said.

Because the city claims internal investigation revealed the recording of the line was not intentional, he said, it could not violate the federal law and therefore cannot claim that law constitutes an exemption from releasing the recordings under FOIA.

MLive/The Grand Rapids Press filed a lawsuit in Kent County Circuit Court contesting the city's refusal to release the recordings.

Kent County Circuit Judge Joseph Rossi refused to order the release of the recordings until U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo decides if such release would violate the law. Rossi wanted to "avoid conflicting rulings from the two courts."

Magyar argued that, because MLive is not a party to the federal lawsuit and because the city determined the recording to not be in violation of federal law, they remain public records subject to release and Rossi's ruling amounts to an "abuse of discretion."

MLive took the case to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments on Wednesday, Sept. 6.

The appellate court's ruling shows it ultimately agreed that Rossi's decision was made in error and that the recordings should be released, Magyar said.

"There never was a doubt in our mind that the law demands a clear exemption, cited in FOIA, to withhold public records, and the city never demonstrated they had one," said John Hiner, vice president of content for MLive Media Group. "I'm gratified that the Court of Appeals made it crystal clear that the people's interests in open government under FOIA must be upheld, and I'm proud of how our journalists and attorneys asserted for those rights.

"We have not lost sight of the key point in all of this - access to the tapes of the 'unrecorded' lines, and inspecting the actions of public officials in the discharge of their duties. We will see this through to the end."

Officials from the city of Grand Rapids could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday's ruling.

The ruling by the Court of Appeals sends the case back to Kent County Circuit Court, ordering the court to issue an order for the release of the documents requested. The appellate court's judgment was given immediate effect.